Langston Hughes' poem “The Weary Blues” is about the emotional anguish of an old blues singer/piano player. To look at why he uses the term “moan” in connection with the singer's piano, we have to examine Hughes' purpose for writing the poem--what is he trying to say to his readers?
One of the best ways to uncover a poet's theme is to look at his diction. What kinds of words does he use? Do many of the words point in the same direction or evoke the same emotional response? A quick reading of “The Weary Blues” reveals the following words that have a similar thematic impact:
weary, drowsy, mellow, pale, dull, rickety, sad, raggy, melancholy, old, died, dead, ain't happy.
Hughes is communicating a feeling of resignation—life can be disappointing, and sometimes the only thing you can do to ease the pain is throw your head back and sing your feelings.
But what about the word “moan”? For one thing, “moan” fits into the word pattern quite nicely. What do we do when we feel bad? We moan. Whether it's physical pain or emotional pain, we express that pain by moaning. The word moan appears twice in the poem, in the following lines:
Line 10: He made that poor piano moan with melody.
Line 18: I heard that negro sing—that old piano moan.
What's interesting here is that Hughes' has the piano do the moaning, not the singer (the singer “croons” and “sings”). Hughes is creating a type of metaphor called personification by giving the piano a human ability. In so doing, he emphasizes just how powerful the emotions are—even the piano seems to feel them. If he had used the word "play" instead, the piano would have remained neutral and would not have contributed as much to Hughes' message.
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